Japan’s Growing Political Gender Gap

Three days before South Korea elected a woman president, Japanese voters significantly reduced the number of women in parliament. As a result of Sunday's vote, the new lower house will have 38 women, or 7.9% of all lawmakers in that chamber. That's down from 54, or 11.3% in the prior session, and even lower than the 43 elected the time before that in 2005. That ended a steady increase in the number of female MPs in the past three campaigns.

Japan's low number is "embarrassing as an advanced country," said Mieko Nakabayashi, a female candidate from the (no longer) ruling Democratic Party of Japan. She was first elected to parliament three years ago from Kanagawa Prefecture. She lost Sunday to a male opponent.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Japan's lower house of parliament.

Japan’s new gender map in parliament is a step back from its goal, set out in 2006, to have women account for 30% of all lawmakers. Even before this vote, Japan has long lagged behind much of the world in terms of female political clout. As of Oct. 31, the Inter-Parliamentary Union ranked Japan 113th out of 190 countries regarding the ratio of female representatives in the lower house. All other G7 countries ranked higher. Germany was the highest, at 24th, with a 32.9% ratio. The closest G7 country to Japan was the U.S., which ranked 82nd with a 17% ratio. The global average was 20.7%.

Within Asia, China and South Korea ranked 66th and 89th. Applying Sunday's results to the IPU data, Japan would fall to 127th, tied with Botswana.

But perhaps what is more significant than the lack of female lawmakers in numbers is the absence of a powerful female role model, or any woman seen as even being groomed for top leadership anytime in the near future. Although some female parliamentarians have become cabinet ministers, few , if any, command the leadership clout of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Unlike neighboring South Korea, which shares dismal grades for overall female participation, Japan does not have a potential female heavyweight on the horizon like Seoul's president-elect, Park Geun-Hye.

Associated Press

Former leader of the Social Democratic Party Takako Doi, shown here in 1996 with then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, was endorsed by the upper house to become the country's premier in a symbolic vote in 1989.

Back in 1989, Japan came close, kind of. The less-powerful upper house of parliament that year voted to endorse Takako Doi, the female head of the Socialist Party, to run the country. But that was purely a symbolic vote, since choosing prime ministers is the preserve of the lower house. The upper house is more women-friendly than the lower house. Women hold 43 of the 242 seats in that chamber -- or 17.7%.

Japan's politics mirrors its private sector. The difficulty of managing a work-life balance continues to limit female participation and opportunities in the workplace, according to an OECD report released this week. The gender pay gap, which starts with young workers, widens to as much as 40% for those over 40, making it among the largest in the OECD. Furthermore, the report points out, “less than 5% of listed company board members in Japan are women, one of the lowest proportions among OECD countries.”

"Without women's social participation, it's difficult to get women into the Diet," said Ms. Nakabayashi, who attended an Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in November. "Political participation comes after social participation.”

The reason behind the female depression was the thwacking taken by the DPJ. The party made gender appeal a central part of its political and policy strategy during the 2009 campaign when it took power. The party accounted for 74% of the 54 women voted into the lower house at the time, according to the Internal Affairs Ministry. It championed family-friendly policies like child support allowances.

The party fielded fewer female candidates this time around: 37 compared to 46 in 2009. Only three of the party's 24 female incumbents will be returning to parliament. No first-time candidates won. And many female lawmakers who followed political mentor Ichiro Ozawa -- architect of the famous 2009 "Ozawa Girls" strategy -- out of the DPJ were knocked out as well. Of the 28 women who ran with his newly created anti-nuclear Tomorrow Party of Japan, 25 lost, including 10 veterans. The face of that party during the campaign was a woman, party head Yukiko Kada, the governor of Shiga Prefecture. But she didn't actually run for parliament.

One modest advance for Japan's women politicians -- they are doing better within the once and future ruling Liberal Democratic Party. All seven female LDP incumbents hung onto their seats, and added 16 new classmates in the process.